Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from the Hechinger Report, author Casey Parks discusses the financial necessity for state schools to diversify their student populations.

• What factors contribute to the disparity between minority high school graduation rates and college admission rates?

• To learn about how aggressive policing hurts minority youth education, click here.

For years, LSU was [Louisiana]’s whitest public university, but Lockett could feel things changing. Even as flagships elsewhere have grown less diverse, LSU has made slight, but important gains. Last fall, after the university’s admissions team worked to craft a more intentional recruiting plan, officials say they enrolled the most diverse freshman class in LSU’s nearly 160-year history. Though minority students here report high rates of discrimination, a growing number of African-Americans and Latinos are staying at the flagship for all four years.

LSU President F. King Alexander believes these universities are charting their own demise. Children of color make up the majority of public school students under age 18, and their share of the population will only grow, even as the total number of college students is projected to drop by 15 percent over the next decade. At the same time, state budget cuts mean public institutions must rely more heavily on revenue from tuition and fees than on taxpayer dollars. State data shows LSU’s undergraduate enrollment has declined each of the last three years to 25,235 last fall.

“If we don’t pay attention to demographic trends, many of our institutions are going to be left out in the cold for decades,” Alexander said. To remain financially viable in the long term, he knows his school has to enroll a greater number of students who look like Lockett.

Read the full article about diversity at state universities by Casey Parks at The Hechinger Report.